Huge Crowd Greets Mitt Romney in Roanoke, Virginia

A huge crowd greeted Mitt Romney at a Thursday morning campaign event inside a window manufacturing plant in Roanoke, Virginia. The local Roanoke Timesreported the story:

A fired-up Mitt Romney rallied a crowd of just under 3,000 in Roanoke County this morning at the first of three stops in Virginia.

Romney played off one of President Barack Obama’s slogans of four years ago – “Hope and change” — by arguing that he offers “real change.”

In 2008, the city of Roanoke was one of Barack Obama’s few strongholds in southwestern Virginia. Obama defeated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) there by a margin of 7,000 votes (24,000 to 17,000).

2012, however, is a different story, as a loose coalition of local and out-of-state grassroots activists, Republican Party groups, and traditional conservative organizations have combined to knock on the doors of over 10,000 undecided voters within the Roanoke city limits over the past seven weeks.

A recent poll by Roanoke College shows that Romney leads Obama in Virginia by five points among likely voters.